Footage of two bride and groom waiting their brides in a double wedding ceremony were seen tens of thousands of times in social media posts that falsely claimed they showed the couple getting married in Indonesia, where gay marriage is not allowed. The ministry of religious affairs in Wonosobo, where the wedding took place, confirmed that the video showed two men preparing to marry sisters.
“God forgive me. Same-sex marriage…” read the Indonesian text superimposed on a TikTok video with over 92,000 views.
A man narrating the video says it shows a gay couple exchanging their wedding vows in an “official same-sex wedding” in Wonosobo in Central Java Province, Indonesia on May 11th.
The video was posted on May 29, shortly after Indonesia’s ministry of religious affairs annulled a marriage initially considered to be between a man and a woman – but which ended up being between two men (archived link).
The ministry said the marriage was invalid because same-sex marriage was “no permitted in Islamic culture and religion.”
Another same-sex marriage ceremony was stopped by police in Wonosobo in 2016 (archived link).
Homosexuality is not prohibited in Indonesia, except in the conservative province of Aceh, which adheres to strict Islamic laws.
But gay couples often face persecution and discrimination in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, where homosexuality remains taboo.
The video was shared in similar posts on SnackVideo It is TikTok.
Some social media users appeared to believe the footage showed a gay wedding.
“Oh my God, how could this happen?” one commented.
“Isn’t this dangerous (?)”, wrote another.
Double wedding
Keyword searches on Google found a YouTube video from the Wonosobo Ministry of Religious Affairs clarifying that the footage showed a double wedding (archived link).
Ministry representatives identified as Ahmad Fuadi and Panut and wedding officiant Ahmad Soleh said the video showed two men Zidan Yusron Wijanarko and Afan Muhajid and their brides – who are sisters – Harum Nurin Setyawening and Nahriyati Sri Febiningsih.
“Implementation of the marriage contract is carried out in accordance with legal regulations… with the presence of a prospective groom and a prospective bride,” Soleh said.
“This was done twice because of the brothers’ situation.”
Although AFP was unable to track down the exact clip circulating online, keyword searches found a video of wedding highlights on the wedding planner’s Instagram page (archived link).
The video shows the two bride and groom sitting next to each other.
Beautifulw is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in a fake TikTok post and a similar video posted by the wedding planner.
Keyword searches on Instagram also found a clip in one of the brides’ accounts, which shows couples posing in wedding attire (archived link).
from Indonesia law defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
